Skirt Cafe is an on-line community dedicated to exploring, promoting and advocating skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men, formerly known as men in skirts. We do this in the context of men's fashion freedom --- an expansion of choices beyond those commonly available for men to include kilts, skirts and other garments. We recognize a diversity of styles our members feel comfortable wearing, and do not exclude any potential choices. Continuing dialog on gender is encouraged in the context of fashion freedom for men. See here for more details.
Mouse wrote: ↑Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:13 pm
I always thought that Scottish men had an easy in, to skirt wearing. However, Steve and DrFishnets are showing that the tartan kilt is a small extra box attached to the standard man box and is just as restrictive.
To be clear I am not criticising kilts or kilt wearers, just learning about what some of my Scottish friends have to deal with, to wear what they want to.
After listening to what Stevie and other have to say about the kilt. I see it in a different light. The kilt builds a even bigger wall between the man and the clothes he would like to wear.
It would be easier if the kilt were not there at all.
robehickman wrote: ↑Sat Feb 28, 2026 3:17 pm
My objection is/was to your statement that the only difference being the side that the apron fastens being opposite. In an 'off the shelf' or 'bespoke' kilt tailored to a male vs female figure, there are differences in how the pleats and garment as a whole is shaped.
Look at the title of thread "Kilt skirt for men"".
My words were,
STEVIE wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 7:41 pm
The only difference would really be the side the apron fastens on and the cost, I assume.
Note, I added cost as an element too.
I was not expecting a whole lecture on the niceties of kilt or skirt making and I don't want one now.
If you really have to quote, be specific on the element of the post that you wish to question.
Note too that I have been aware of the kilt as a skirt for more than 60 years so let it end here.
The kilt should be recognised as a skirt no matter who the end user is nor how it is tailored.
Steve.
Mouse wrote: ↑Sat Feb 28, 2026 4:13 pm
I always thought that Scottish men had an easy in, to skirt wearing. However, Steve and DrFishnets are showing that the tartan kilt is a small extra box attached to the standard man box and is just as restrictive.
Regarding MIS in non-Western cultures, I believe that skirted rigs have been confined to a single design-or, at very most, a very few designs.
Going the other way, during the tail end of the 18th century, Western women had only two designs that were deemed tolerable, bloomers and culottes. Two small trouser boxes attached to a female box full of skirts/dresses. Additional trouser boxes were added slowly, and that would likely have been even slower if women weren't needed in world war munitions factories.
Western women had an uphill struggle for a long time. Initial experimentation in 1850, taking a lifetime for women to achieve a fair variety of trouser options. The variety they enjoyed during the late 20th century was a long time coming.
Imagining a skirted rig gaining traction during the next 10, 20, or 30 years.... I think that would be like plugging a small box into the Man Coffin.
As for other modes of expression, such as jewelry, nail polish, etc., I see these as now being in an experimental phase. I don't know if any will endure.
If men ever achieve the sheer variety of expression that women had (and are now abandoning) in the late 20th century, it will arrive no sooner than the 22nd century.
